Abengoa is a Madrid-based conglomerate ... It is not starved for cash: according to its 2009 annual report, the firm was valued at $25.5 billion, enjoying a cash flow of $4 billion and a net profit of $288 million. ... At first glance, Abengoa does not appear to require U.S. government-backed loan guarantees. In 2010 it qualified for private bank loans in 11 countries worth $161 million. In July 2009 alone, Abengoa issued convertible bonds in Europe worth $688 million ...

... According to DOE, the $1.45 billion loan guarantee will employ or “save” 60 permanent jobs at the Solana solar plant, working out to $24.2 million per permanent job “created or saved.” The Mojave solar plant is similar. It will save or create 70 permanent jobs, which is $17.1 million per permanent job. The biomass plant will create 65 permanent jobs. That is a real job creator, generating each permanent job for $2 million ...

On October 14, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that 100 U.S. troops, acting as advisors ... There is one other possible factor inspiring this new U.S. effort. The geographic areas ... are in the middle of recent discoveries of oilfields ... Three companies have bought the drilling rights. Heritage sold its interests to Tullow, Tullow sold 30% of its interests to Total and CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is state-run). ...

Is the Obama Administration Politically Manipulating the Poverty Data?

The Census Bureau’s recently created “Supplemental Poverty Measure” (SPM) looks like a ruse to artificially show economic and poverty-reducing improvement in time for the 2012 presidential election. Longer-term, it appears to be a rigged mechanism for demonstrating how ObamaCare, assuming it survives legal challenges and attempts at repeal, is a resounding success.

If I’m right, the press is doing a really good job of setting things up. A recent Associated Press item which gained an usual amount of traction in the center-right blogosphere with an unfortunate shortage of skepticism told us that “1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income.” SPM, which is indeed what AP cryptically referenced, radically redefines what it means to be “low income,” in the process adding almost 40 million more people to that category in 2010 compared to the number in the bureau’s official income and poverty report.

Though there are many technical and conceptual problems with the bureau’s traditional poverty measurements, the only problem that matters to Barack Obama and his reelection team is the political impact of the official poverty rate. During the supposed era of Hope and Change, the rate has stubbornly and sharply increased. In 2007, the year before the arrival of what I have been calling the POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy since mid-2008, that official rate was 12.5%, about the same as the previous four years. After increasing to 13.2% in 2008, it zoomed to 14.3% in 2009. When it hit 15.1% in 2010, it meant that the administration’s supposedly brilliant set of Keynesian policies had essentially taken us back to where we were in the early 1990s ...

Eric Holder has blocked South Carolina’s voter ID law. Hans von Spakovsky and I have been predicting this was going to happen for over eight months here at PJ Media. The only surprising thing is that no halftime adjustments were made after it became even clearer an objection was on the way. Texas now faces the same dilemma. Sadly, I’m not convinced Texas understands the battlefield or the stakes involved.

Attorney General Abbot says on Twitter that “Texas will be next. We’ll fight to the end for ballot integrity.”

If true, then pull the Texas voter ID submission now, tonight, by fax, and go to federal court now, on your terms.

I don’t believe these state officials understand the effect of an objection by the Justice Department ...

During two days of recent congressional hearings into how as much as $1.2 billion disappeared from MF Global customer accounts, the chief operating officer of the imploding investment firm responded again and again that he did not know ...

... Even as he finds himself the public face of a bankruptcy and admitted to lawmakers that he had no idea how client funds disappeared, Congress and the administration have voiced no public concern about Mr. Abelowĺs role advising the $8.6 billion government agency on its finances. ôEPA relying on Wall Street for financial guidance is like the blind leading the blind,ö ...

Analyst: 'This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant'
Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it ľ a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ...

... your tax (Obama) dollers at work ...

Chevy Volts' potentially flammable batteries: Are the cars still safe?
POSTED ON DECEMBER 5, 2011, AT 3:59 PM

GM's green-energy star hits a speed bump Ś with some Volts catching fire weeks after being damaged in government crash tests ... Days or weeks after the government conducted side-impact tests on Volts, the cars' lithium-ion batteries caught fire, and the government is investigating why ...

Summary: The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is investigating whether lithium-ion batteries are the culprit behind several crash test fires.

Just what the green-tech industry needed, another reason to wonder about whether electric vehicles are really worth the investment. Worse yet, whether they represent your safest possible mode of transportation ...

DETROITŚU.S. safety regulators are combing over five Chevrolet Volts to determine whether welded parts near the 400-pound battery contributed to fires that occurred following government crash tests.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in a memo on its website, said it wants to know if crashes caused changes in welded areas on the underside of the vehicle, where the battery rests ...

... wait till they douse the car with water, and it grounds thru an occupant ...

The owner of this vintage electric powered car is laughing all the way to the bank. As Chevy Volt owners dish out almost $32,000, he is driving this 115 year old vehicle with the exact same mileage around town.

Built in 1896, the Roberts electric vehicle gets 40 miles to a charge, just like the Volt. The owner of the vehicle says that it runs like a top ...

Sales for the Chevy Volt have been stagnant and it has become apparent that lack of supply is not the reason. GM CEO Dan Akerson is responsible for tying the success of GM into the success of the Volt by having made lofty claims that the vehicle was, in fact, the future of the company while investing a major portion of marketing dollars to help support the perception. Deception was evident as statements were made that the vehicle was "virtually" sold out and supply couldn't keep up with demand, ... GM cancelled plans to run a second shift for the vehicle even as it continued the ruse and floated rumors that there were huge waiting lists of purchasers for the vehicle ...

... is the discovery that the lithium-ion batteries that power the vehicles may be a safety risk as NHTSA vehicles spontaneously combusted into flames days or weeks after crash-tests. More disturbingly, NHTSA and GM did not immediately notify the public, instead waiting six months to reveal the problem. The delay is being investigated by congress and the NLPC has requested documentation from NHTSA under the Freedom of Information Act regarding communications between the agency and GM ...

... The Volt fiasco has been supported by cronies in industry along with directives from the Obama Administration. General Electric still supports the vehicle and, according to a WSJ report, "...said it has no plans to change its commitment to purchase Volts for its fleet and fleet-services business. A year ago GE agreed to buy 12,000 Volts by 2015 as part of a larger commitment to electric vehicles. GE so far has purchased hundreds of the electric-gas vehicles and continues to receive more daily." GE stands to profit from selling charging stations for the vehicles and is probably the number one crony corporation to benefit from green initiatives ...

... In a Washington Examiner op-ed, journalist Timothy Carney points out the eyebrow-raising ties between President Barack Obamaĺs team and GEĺs leadership. According to Carney, ôGE CEO Jeff Immelt sits on Obamaĺs Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and GE owns MSNBC, the network famously friendly to Obama.ö Immeltsĺs place on the board is concerning for a number of reasons. First and foremost, GE has been the recipient of bailout funds and stands to benefit from current and future contracts with the U.S. government. This may partly explain MSNBCĺs highly favorable treatment of the Obama administration. With GEĺs CEO sitting on Obamaĺs economic panel ...

WILMINGTON, Del. Ś Several of the nearly two dozen employees at bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra LLC who were approved for bonuses Wednesday had months earlier received pay raises as high as 70 percent, a fact the company never disclosed in its request for bonus cash.

The companyĺs bankruptcy attorneys sought permission for the bonuses in a court hearing, arguing that the extra cash is needed to keep key employees from fleeing only to be replaced by more expensive outside consultants ...

CNSNews.com) ľ Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is ôprematureö to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season ...

... He then suggested that the administration seemed to believe that ôthe truth should come out abroad; it shouldnĺt come out here.ö

Fair point. The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance ôwhistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,ö has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers...

... the majority of the recent prosecutions seem to have everything to do with administrative secrecy and very little to do with national security.

In case after case, the Espionage Act has been deployed as a kind of ad hoc Official Secrets Act, which is not a law that has ever found traction in America, a place where the peopleĺs right to know is viewed as superseding the governmentĺs right to hide its business ...

... Mark Corallo, who served under Attorney General John D. Ashcroft during the Bush administration, told Adam Liptak of The New York Times this month that he was ôsort of shockedö by the number of leak prosecutions under President Obama. ôWe would have gotten hammered for it,ö ...

... there is plenty of authorized leaking going on, but this particular boat leaks from the top. Leaks from the decks below, especially ones that might embarrass the administration, have been dealt with very differently.

THE United States has been narrowly saved from lethal terrorist plots in recent years — or so it has seemed. A would-be suicide bomber was intercepted on his way to the Capitol; a scheme to bomb synagogues and shoot Stinger missiles at military aircraft was developed by men in Newburgh, N.Y.; and a fanciful idea to fly explosive-laden model planes into the Pentagon and the Capitol was hatched in Massachusetts.

But all these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects na´vely played their parts until they were arrested.

When an Oregon college student, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, thought of using a car bomb to attack a festive Christmas-tree lighting ceremony in Portland, the F.B.I. provided a van loaded with six 55-gallon drums of “inert material,” harmless blasting caps, a detonator cord and a gallon of diesel fuel to make the van smell flammable. An undercover F.B.I. agent even did the driving, with Mr. Mohamud in the passenger seat. To trigger the bomb the student punched a number into a cellphone and got no boom, only a bust ...

Documents found in the house where Osama bin Laden was killed a year ago show a close working relationship between top al-Qaida leaders and Mullah Omar, the overall commander of the Taliban, including frequent discussions of joint operations against Nato forces in Afghanistan, the Afghan government and targets in Pakistan.

The communications show a three-way conversation between Bin Laden, his then deputy Ayman Zawahiri and Omar, who is believed to have been in Pakistan since fleeing Afghanistan after the collapse of his regime in 2001.

They indicate a "very considerable degree of ideological convergence", a Washington-based source familiar with the documents told the Guardian.

The news will undermine hopes of a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, where the key debate among analysts and policymakers is whether the Taliban – seen by many as following an Afghan nationalist agenda – might once again offer a safe haven to al-Qaida or like-minded militants, or whether they can be persuaded to renounce terrorism ...

POSTED ON APRIL 23, 2012 BY PAUL MIRENGOFFWILLFUL BLINDNESS AT THE FBI
According to Jim Kouri of the Examiner, the FBI is revising its counterterrorism training programs by removing all references to Muslims and Arab-Americas that are offensive to groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). President Obama is said to be watching this process. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has been leading it ...

MILPITAS (CBS 5) — Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste ...

OBTW ... hey boys and girls; does anybody remember what happened one year ago? ... can you remember what you had for breakfast today? ... No? ... I didn't think so ...

... Almost everyone in the U.S. media knew about this six hours ago because local media, including Kabul-based TOLONews, began reporting the President's visit this morning. The story was soon picked up by international news organizations and by the New York Post, causing the White House to issue stern denials ...

How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan
How the White House played whack-a-mole, and why I deleted my tweet. Drudge wouldn't budge. posted May 1, 2012 3:01pm EDT Zeke Miller

President Barack Obama has landed in Afghanistan and arrived at the presidential palace in Kabul, where he will sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the Afghan government on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden.

"President Barack Obama is in Afghanistan for a whirlwind visit that will culminate in a live, televised address to the American people," a White House pool report said Tuesday.

Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will sign the agreement shortly and Obama is scheduled to address the nation just after 7:30 EDT Tuesday evening from Bagram Airbase. The agreement commits the United States to a security presence in Afghanistan for years after the 2014 handover of control to the Afghan government ...

Most Americans realize that today marks the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of courageous Navy SEALs. Yet many of the same citizens, conditioned by a national media that pays scant attention to the military's daily sacrifices, probably don't realize that 2012's bloodiest month of fighting in Afghanistan ...

In an explosive memoir released today, former CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez provides new evidence that Rep. Nancy Pelosi lied when she declared she had not been briefed about the use of waterboarding ...

Sad. White House Won’t Admit that Waterboarding Led to Osama’s Courier (Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 3:09 PM

Is giving terrorists “Ensure” the equivalent of Orwellian torture? That’s what 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl said during a discussion with a CIA Official. For anyone wondering, “Ensure” is a “dairy-based beverage that’s loaded with calories and nutrients, primarily for cancer patients who can’t eat.” ...

... all the while ...

... and WHY? ...

SEALs slam Obama for using them as 'ammunition' in bid to take credit for bin Laden killing during election campaign
By TOBY HARNDEN / PUBLISHED: 18:35 EST, 30 April 2012 | UPDATED: 10:42 EST, 1 May 2012

Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack Obama for taking the credit for killing Osama bin Laden and accused him of using Special Forces operators as ‘ammunition’ for his re-election campaign ...

So let me get this straight, the smartest President America has ever seen, Barack Hussein Obama, has ôchangedö American foreign policy from giving tacit support to Arab dictators that provided at least a small amount of regional stability and now supports replacing them with radical Islamist backed by our sworn enemies.

Certainly makes one wonder if there is a radical Muslim anywhere in the world that Barack Hussein Obama doesn't like or support? Does anyone wonder why international reaction to our new Middle Eastern policy, lke arming the Al Qaeda back Syrian rebels in another Fast and Furious scam, has fallen on deaf ears?

Maybe its because the new governments of Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia and now Syria are aligned with the ideology of Al Qaeda. Maybe its because the EU needs Russia's natural gas and oil? Maybe its because the US has lost all economic respect from the world because China isn't just a sideline player but an economic powerhouse everyone seems to need? Maybe it because Muslim riots in Europe have given pause to Europeans regarding their position on immigration and its long-term effect on their societies?

Whatever the reasons, the support for our current foreign policies from our long time friends and allies is slowly eroding.

Three and a half more years to go as Barack Hussein Obama arms our enemies in the Middle East, illegally runs weapons to Mexico and maybe other South American countries, pays little to no attention to the war in the Congo and other ôhot spotsö, and trivializes our relationship with friends and allies.

So this is the ôchangeö we are suppose to believe in? The United States of America, once the strongest most humble super power the world has ever seen made insignificant by the insane and regressive polices of Barack Hussein Obama.

This will not end well for the people of America.

__________________
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."- Alexis de Tocqueville, c. 1835

This is a not a good approach for the any country.Naturally, the intelligence officials who broke the story requested anonymity for fear of retribution. Another argument Bushies love to make is how all the books that expose the facts are written by ex-Clinton appointees who are crying sour grapes.Thanks for sharing this information.
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